If David Abercrombie had known what his store was going to become when he founded it in 1892, I’m sure he would have been stunned. It’s amazing what years of evolution and buyouts can do to a company’s original vision – here’s what Abercrombie and Fitch and nine other clothing retailers sold when their doors first opened.
1. When Abercrombie Co. opened in Manhattan in 1892, it sold excursion goods. In fact, it sold adventurer-type items to no less than Teddy Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. As it became more popular (and after Fitch came on), the flagship store on Madison Avenue housed a shooting range, a golf school with a resident pro, a kennel for cats and dogs, and a small pool for fly-fishing lessons.
2. Although Banana Republic also originally had a similar adventure-safari-type theme, the difference is that they sold clothes that looked the part whereas Abercrombie & Fitch sold functional items. The original BR got most of its sales through a hand-illustrated catalog that included mostly fictional accounts about trips to exotic locations (think that’s where Elaine got her writing inspiration for J. Peterman?). When stores were added, they carried out the safari theme wholeheartedly with real Jeeps, exotic plants and fog.
3. Perhaps a sign of the times, the first Gap store sold nothing but Levi’s and LPs. It was located in San Francisco and the year was 1969, so go figure.
4. In 1920, at the ripe old age of 21, Eddie Bauer opened “Eddie Bauer’s Tennis Shop” in Seattle. It was only open during the tennis season, but was successful enough to allow him to expand the store to handmade golf clubs and fishing tackle. That’s when he changed the store name to “Eddie Bauer’s Sport Shop.”
5. A relative newcomer to the group, Forever 21 was only founded in 1984. The couple who owned Forever 21 imported clothing from their native South Korea to sell specifically to Los Angeles Korean Americans at their store, then named Fashion 21. To their surprise, their audience ended up being much broader than they originally thought; people of all ethnicities loved the fashions and they expanded to what they are today (that would be Forever 21, XXI Forever, Heritage 1981, Gadzooks21, Reference, For Love21, Twelve by Twelve, Faith21, Love21, Forever 21 Twist, HTG81 and 21Men. Whew.).
6. Prior to Kohl’s Department Store, Max Kohl opened Kohl’s supermarket which eventually became Kohl’s Food Stores. Unlike our other stores, instead of abandoning his original concept entirely, Kohl expanded into department stores and kept both. Kohl’s Food Stores were sold to A&P in 1983 and were known as Kohl’s II, but those are now defunct.
7. Talk about a specific market: when Bloomingdale’s opened in 1861, the brothers were selling hoop-skirts.
8. I’ve acquired quite the Gymboree habit. If it had never developed beyond its original purpose, I’d have much more of a paycheck than I do now. In 1976, Joan Barnes created Gymboree Play and Music Program because she thought there was no good safe spot for kids and parents to play and exercise together. They didn’t add clothes into the mix until 1986.
9. John Nordstrom struck gold during the Yukon gold rush period and used his money to start a shoe store called Wallin & Nordstrom in 1901. Carl Wallin was the owner of the shoe repair shop next door to Nordstrom’s shoe store. Although the company had expanded to eight stores by 1958, they were still selling nothing but shoes. It wasn’t until the Nordstrom sons acquired Best Apparel of Seattle in 1963 that they branched out.
10. The JCP Store is what James Cash Penney’s first big business venture was called – it was a dry goods store.
An extra, just for fun: Bergdorf Goodman was originally just a couple of guys running a tailoring business – Herman Bergdorf and Edwin Goodman.
Do you know of any others? Abercrombie & Fitch really threw me for a loop.
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Theodore Roosevelt bought some of his expedition gear at Abercrombie & Fitch.
Now it sells craptastical ripped up teen-gear in an incredibly loud pitch black environment. Wow, terrific.
My grandfather bought his gear for Antarctica at Abercrombie also.
I last went into A&E in about 1998?? And asked the teen clerk when the store was founded, she said a couple years previous. Yeah, no….
posted by Dianne on 10-27-2010 at 7:27 pm
Oh, and Banana Republic used to sell a lot of surplus stuff. I have a 60′s jacket that was intended for Peace Corps types, and at one point I had a Belgian Navy officer’s shirt, and other goodies.
If I remember there was a store on the Castro and one in Palo Alto. The jeep through the front window was an early feature, and they played terrific 30′s music in the stores. They also had their own label of khakis.
I think they must’ve plotzed when “Raiders of the Lost Ark” came out because it looked like Indiana Jones shopped at Banana….
posted by Dianne on 10-27-2010 at 7:33 pm
“think that’s where Elaine got her writing inspiration for J. Peterman?”
I’m pretty sure the inspiration for J. Peterman came from J. Peterman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J._Peterman_Company
http://www.jpeterman.com/
posted by Max on 10-27-2010 at 7:54 pm
my parents used to subscribe to the j. peterman catalog. i would read it cover to cover.
the first time i saw an abercrombie and fitch store was in boulder, colorado. it seemed like a really high-end ll bean with some whimsical old-timey pieces thrown in for fun. that was not only the first but also the last time i set foot in one, actually.
finally, i read somewhere that the filene family were named katz and a poor speller at ellis island decided to be snarky and tried to put it down as feline.
posted by tilly on 10-27-2010 at 8:20 pm
I found out about Abercrombie’s history from M*A*S*H
And no not the original broadcast
I got the series in 2008 xD
posted by GH on 10-27-2010 at 8:32 pm
My father took me to the Abercrombie and Fitch store in NY in the early/mid 1960s. I think that’s where I got my first Swiss Army Knife. On the 7th and/or 8th floor was the fun stuff. I remember seeing an Amphicar, but the highlight of my visit was a genuine Gatling Gun, with a small placard in elegant script that read: “For enterprising yachtsmen in pirate-infested waters.”
posted by Don Zahniser on 10-27-2010 at 9:57 pm
I know that A&F used to sell high end firearms for discerning sportsmen.
posted by Brian on 10-27-2010 at 10:32 pm
Abercrombie and Fitch had an impressive client, Ernest Hemingway. In fact, they actually sold him the gun he killed himself with. So much for market image.. google it.
posted by Brian on 10-28-2010 at 12:18 am
Ha. Thanks for verifying my M*A*S*H addiction, GH. I love that episode. Hawkeye orders a portable washtub from Abercrombie and Fitch. It threw me for a loop when I heard that name come out of his mouth.
posted by Kat on 10-28-2010 at 2:02 am
I remember going to A&F in NYC when I was in elementary school (very early 80s), and it was a pretty cool place, where they had wool blankets, and trunks, and Swiss Army knives, along with other historical stuff. I also remember the Banana Republic in South Street Seaport having a safari-type Jeep coming out the window, with palm trees and fog in the actual store. They also had pretty rugged stuff back then. Now, I can’t even go into an Abercrombie & Fitch store without feeling old, but I still love Banana Republic, regardless of the change in styles.
posted by jenny on 10-28-2010 at 8:58 am
Target used to sell guns
posted by John on 10-28-2010 at 9:29 am
While not a clothing store, my favorite example of a store changing what it sells is the fabric and craft store Jo-Ann Fabrics. It originally sold cheese.
posted by BlueAloe on 10-28-2010 at 10:11 am
Sears supposedly started with pocket watches for train conductors. Seeing the opportunity that train deliveries could bring, they expanded into what it is today.
A local historian in our community also claimed that Sears got his idea from the Independent Watch Co. of Fredonia, New York. They sold their watches to people who really needed to keep good time, the conductors of trains.
posted by gewurz on 10-28-2010 at 10:35 am
@John, Wal-Mart still sells guns (at least here in Texas)
posted by Witty Nickname on 10-28-2010 at 10:57 am
For what it’s worth Sears also sold houses & automobiles.
posted by Alan on 10-28-2010 at 10:59 am
I miss the Kohl’s grocery stores, growing up here in Wisconsin that’s where we used to go grocery shopping. Their stores had a trademark arch on the outside.
posted by Emma on 10-28-2010 at 11:34 am
The original Abercrombie & Fitch was a high-end “chain” with stores in NYC, Chicago and SF only. The existing A&F is not related – they bought the name out of bankruptcy – and as some commenters have noted did start out with a Beanish outdoorsy preppy style.
posted by Mr Punch on 10-28-2010 at 11:55 am
Abercrombie & Fitch also outfitted John Steinbeck for his cross-country travels – he mentions it in Travels with Charley.
posted by Janine on 10-28-2010 at 12:05 pm
Too bad you didn’t know about Abercrombie & Fitch’s long history.
As a child, I was taken to A&F on a family trip to New York. (My father, a sporting enthusiast wanted to see their offerings of fine Italian bird guns.)
The fact is, Abercrombie was the world’s leading expedition outfitter until relatively recently.
During interviews upon the release of ‘Quiz Show,’ Robert Redford told the story that his first paying ‘show biz job’ was appearing as an actor in a early 60s Merv Griffin TV quiz show called ‘Play Your Hunch.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_Your_Hunch
Redford’s ‘pay?’: A flyfishing rod from Abercrombie & Fitch worth $75.
In the interviews, Redford suggested that the pay was somehow indicative of the game-show scandal at the heart of ‘Quiz Show.’
Merv Griffin was so incensed that he dedicated an entire page about it in his autobiography “Making a Good Life Last,” and even claimed to have sent a $75 check to Redford to settle the matter all those years later.
Read it here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-7G83_SBxRkC&lpg=PA66&ots=cG_69_rL3n&dq=Robert%20Redford%20story%20Abercrombie%20%26%20Fitch&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Redford%20story%20Abercrombie%20&%20Fitch&f=false
posted by Ego Nemo on 10-28-2010 at 12:54 pm
GH took my answer. Charles had ordered a hunting outfit from A&F.
posted by gus on 10-28-2010 at 2:01 pm
The shoe department in Nordstroms is still ginormous. My wife and I were in a Nordstroms in San Jose, and they had the biggest shoe section I’ve ever seen. My wife was in heaven; I, on the other hand…
posted by Justin on 10-28-2010 at 2:16 pm
It’s hard to imagine Abercrombie & Fitch’s current customer base engaging in anything more adventurous than a drunken frat party…
posted by sammylee on 10-28-2010 at 5:57 pm